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Poverty causes 6.5 million children to work

Source
Tempo Interactive - June 13, 2008

Reh Atemalem S., Jakarta – Head of the National Child Protection Commission, Seto Mulyadi, said 6.5 million children have to work due to poverty. "The number rises by 30-80 percent every year, aligned with the number of children who drop out of school and violence to children," he said yesterday.

The commission reported 11 million children aged 7-8 years old throughout Indonesia do not go to school. Some 2.1 million school-aged children dropped out of school in 2004, mostly at secondary school. Working children are aged 7-17 years old.

They work at informal sectors like selling in the street, shoe polishers, maids, and rag pickers. They also work at night amusement centers, home businesses, and manufacturers. Most of them say they work to help their parents.

Susanti, 17 years old, works at Muara Angke helping her parents by cleaning out swallows nests. She stopped her education when she was at elementary school. She is paid Rp15,000 a day for 11 hours. "The government should help children go to school," said Susanti with tears in her eyes.

Fourteen-year-old Musmunah works at the night amusement center from early morning. "I want to be like other children," she said. No one from her family ever attended school.

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